So, you're being subsidized by the landlord.If you were to move to a lower costs area, there would be better deals, and buying would make more sense.The classical rental investing rule of thumb is that its only a good rental if the monthly rent is at least 1% of the purchase price.

From there I plan to re-purpose my equity as a down-payment on a larger apartment building.

I like: Vacation Rentals Multi Family Mobile Home Parks Land And Repurposing of Properties (The above is just my interest in not anxious to be involved in each of those)I'm not: Here to be taken advantage of Or A Flipper

Classic "chicken or egg" question - which one to do first: the deal or the money.The answer - do BOTH.Finding good deals is crucial so you can attract the money.However, having said that, you need to be talking to people NOW even before you have a deal so you can line up prospective money partners or funding sources.Here's a forum post I started on How to Find Money for your First Deal.By the way, you can NOT get money from mortgage brokers or banks for rehab projects.

And to echo joe, who I have come to learn is a fellow long lost west Texas cousin, check out books that merge the strategies of fix and rent, like jay p decima's classic book, investing in fixer uppers, one I mention on a top 100 podcast, by joe!

Will not transfer who owes the debt if they do one of their classic bait and switch where they never pay off the loan, maybe rent out the property, collect until if goes to foreclosure.

If utilities are included and paid by the landlord then you can go up to 60% sometimes.The purchase price would then be 340,800 at a 10 cap.There could be value if the rents haven't been raised in a really long time to keep it full and you can increase the yield that way.Also if the property sits on premium land or spread out with extra land for development you can add on or sell to a developer for higher density or re-purposing at a premium.

I've been thinking that there are going to be opportunities to invest in bank locations that have closed down and to then repurpose them for other uses (medical building, multi-tenant space, etc.). 

So there is this house that I worked by that is your classic distressed/Jumanji house.

A few easy starter classics (especially with the buy and hold theme) are Buy and Hold (Schumacher) and what to do while you hold Landlording (Leigh Robinson) often at most libraries or a few bucks used... then build on to more recent books based on your themes and interest...